Sans Serif

The Kenyon Review has just published a new anthology of work culled from the magazine over the past seventy years. Editor David Lynn writes:

Readings for Writers is a very different creature from your usual anthology…A different principle of selection comes into play: choosing stories, poems, and essays from across the decades to provoke lively responses from writers today, to inspire and challenge…the selections here are intended to inspire active response—pen to paper, fingers to keyboard.”

All in all, it looks like a terrific volume for teachers of writing, not to mention anyone who is engaged in the practice of writing short stories, essays, and poems. Contributions are arranged chronologically, beginning with Randall Jarrell, Allen Tate, and Dylan Thomas–all published in the magazine’s first year, 1939–and ending with Cara Blue Adams, whose essay appeared in 2009. Along the way areworks by the likes of Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Pynchon, Sylvia Plath, Nadine Gordimer, V.S. Naipul, Don DeLillo, Robert Haas, Annie Dillard, Billy Collins, Virgil Suarez, Czeslaw Milosz, Pablo Neruda, W.S. Merwin, and many others–82 selections in all.

I was browsing the contents page when, quite by surprise, I came upon “A Life in Pods,” an essay of mine which appeared in the magazine in 2008. I’m thrilled to be included in such amazing company, and can’t wait to get my copy and dig in.

You can order the issue here.

Coutts & Co, the UK private banking arm of the Royal Bank of Scotland, publishes a magazine for its female clients called Coutts Woman. The magazine runs a monthly feature called “Coutts Woman Loves,” and this month, Coutts woman loves No One You Know: “Betrayal and tragedy are the two themes beautifully explored in this literary thriller. A gripping read which you will find hard to put down.”

Also on the July list: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth and Keith Donohue’s Angels of Destruction.

A nice review of the French translation of The Year of Fog, L’annee, brouillard, (translated by Sophie Aslanides) in the Belgian journal Lalibre:
“Avec sensibilité, Michelle Richmond interroge la fragilité de nos propres histoires et le rôle de la mémoire. Avec ce roman psychologique à suspense, Richmond offre une plongée au cœur du désir et des émotions avec une belle sensibilité.”

Two new reviews of the French translation of The Year of Fog in French journals:
Femina
“Une fillette disparaît sur la plage, un jour de brouillard… Le livre de l’Américaine Michelle Richmond explore avec une précision photographique le vide émotionnel qui s’ensuit.”

Le Republicain Lorrain
“Ce roman est le premier traduit en français de l’Américaine Michelle Richmond, dont l’écriture sans pathos, précise comme un scalpel, explore en profondeur les conséquences d’un fait divers comme il y en a tant.”

Via the San Francisco Examiner, Poets and Writers Magazine has put together a summer reading list, culled from reader responses and the PW facebook page. Year of Fog is on the list, along with poetry by Robert Haas (Sun Under Wood), fiction by Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas(, Robert Bolano (2666), Chris Adrian (The Children’s Hospital), Toni Morrison (A Mercy), and TC Boyle (The Women), and nonfiction by Christopher Hitchens and Michael Pollen, among others. Read the entire list of recommended novels here. The nonfiction list is here, the poetry list here.

Thanks to Eileen Conway, Circulation Supervisor at Rockwall County Library in Rockwall, TX, for this thoughtful review of The Year of Fog.

Less than a month after publication, No One You Know has gone into its third trade paperback printing. A big shout-out to readers, booksellers, and to everyone who has spread the word via goodreads, librarything, etc. If your book club is reading No One You Know, please visit my book club page for extra goodies. Purchase signed copies here.

If you think writers are full of it, this is the event to attend, because rarely does the evening end without at least one writer suffering some form of public humiliation. Tonight, I just hope it’s not me. To read more about the format and the chilling Death Match finale, go here.

Tonight’s Literary Death Match is also a launch party for Issue 8 of Opium Magazine. It’s happening at the Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St. Doors open at 6:30, and the show begins at 7:15.

Who’s in the face-off: Katharine Noel (Halfway House), Eric Puchner (Music Through the Floor), KM Soehnlein (The World of Normal Boys), Jim Nelson (representing Instant City), and yours truly. How it works: there are two rounds in which readers go head to head, followed by the infamous finale: an as-yet-undisclosed non-literary contest between two finalists, often involving feats of physical strength.

Who’s judging: Ayelet Waldman (Bad Mother), Josh Kornbluth (Haiku Tunnel), and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb (T.I.C.–Trenchcoat in Common). How judging works: readers are evaluated on literary merit, style, and intangibles. I do hope Ayelet is judging style, because this woman knows her boots.

Cost: $10 includes an issue of Opium 8. The event is hosted by Todd Zuniga & Alana Conner.

The current issue of UK’s Star Magazine features No One You Know, and gives it four (out of five) stars. Gotta love British brevity. The review in its entirety reads:

When Lila is violently murdered, her sister Ellie doesn’t know where to turn. Years later, off the beaten track in Nicaragua, she meets the man accused of the murder. Maintaining his innocence, he gives her Lila’s diary, leaving Ellie to unravel the mystery of her sister’s life.

The Telegraph recently asked me to write about San Francisco for its “My Kind of Town” feature. The article, which includes my favorite city haunts, where to stay, what to avoid, where to shop, and more, appears today. You can read it here.